BURNT HILLS — Dealing with Queensbury inside was not working for the Burnt Hills girls' basketball team Wednesday night. The offense was not exactly firing on all cylinders, either.

Needing a spark, first-year coach Sue Gestwick decided to have her squad use a press to see if the Spartans' fortunes could change. Did they ever.

Burnt Hills utilized a 12-0 spurt in the third quarter to turn a deficit into a lead and then made foul shots late to emerge with a hard-fought 52-41 victory over Queensbury in the opening round of the Section II Class A playoffs.

"The third quarter was awesome. We put a (1-2-2) press on them. We trapped them, were aggressive and stole it. It really gave us confidence," Gestwick said.

Burnt Hills (4-15) will next travel to meet top-seeded Averill Park (13-5), the Class A champions from 2011 and 2012, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. The Warriors crushed Burnt Hills 57-14 in the only meeting between the two Suburban Council rivals during the regular season — a game Averill Park led 30-2 at halftime.

Gestwick believes the loss to Averill Park was a turning point in the Spartans' season. "That was the first team that was really, really physical with us. We just hadn't seen it," Gestwick said.

Queensbury (6-11) effectively used their size advantage to score points on post-ups in the paint or by grabbing rebounds and converting. The visitors led 23-16 with 6:52 left in the third quarter before Burnt Hills came to life.

The run started with a 15-foot jumper by sophomore guard Morgan Sullivan, followed by a 3-pointer from senior guard Emily Pearce. Queensbury continued to turn the ball over against the press and Pearce culminated the 12-0 surge with another jumper to provide the Spartans a 28-23 lead.

"She took control of the game when we needed to slow it down," Gestwick said of Pearce.

"We got a steal and it got our adrenaline going," Pearce said.

Burnt Hills made 8 of 14 shots in the third quarter to help bring a 37-31 lead into the final eight minutes. Sophomore guard Lindsay Collins then drained two jumpers in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter to provide Burnt Hills ample cushion.